The Strymon Deco Guitar Effects Pedal is inspired by the early recording studios of the '50s and '60s where the introduction of reel-to-reel tape machines produced the characteristic warm sound of tape saturation on the new medium of vinyl. Deco brings this original inspiration back, giving you these vintage tape effects from the earliest recording studios, right on your pedalboard.
Deco's Tape Saturation smooths out your sound with familiar and delicious tape compression and saturation, while fattening it with subtle tape-driven transparent overdrive. The Doubletracker provides the power to shift your sound in many ways, easily allowing you to achieve syrupy slapback tape echoes, psychedelic tape flanging, and gorgeous tape chorusing sounds.
The main features of the Strymon Deco Guitar Effects Pedal include;
Detailed recreation of the mechanics and technology of two vintage studio reel-to-reel tape decks and their interactions
Nuanced sonic delivery of the classic saturation effects of the tape record/playback process
Simple and intuitive Lag Time knob allows for slapback delays, tape echoes, tape flanging, tape chorusing
Two Tape Saturation adjustment and tone shaping knobs: Saturation, Level
Three Doubletracker adjustment and tone shaping knobs: Lag Time, Blend, Wobble
Three Doubletracker blend types to tailor doubletracked sound: Sum, Invert, Bounce
Five "hidden" knobs for deep tone tweaking: High Trim, Low Trim, Auto-Flange Time, Wide Stereo Mode, +/- 3dB Boost/Cut
First I must say that I am not a guitarist, I used this pedal only with synthesizers, looking for a little bit of heat from the sound of the tape, I am really surprised to hear how this really small pedal enhances the sound of some frequencies without coloring the sound. If you feel that some of your synthesizers are a little cold in sonority, I really recommend this pedal is fantastic.
If you wanted a new pedal that harkens back to the old and vintage sounds of the 50s and 60s, the Deco covers it.
The build quality is what you would expect for the price, while a bit steep, you can rest assured it is justified by what Strymon have done here. They have put four major components of a vintage sound and put them into a gorgeous box: slapback echo moving towards a half-second delay, tape saturation, doubletracking and a hidden auto-flange when you hold down on the right footswitch of the pedal which is a lovely treat.
What sets this pedal apart from anything else on the market is the quality of the DSP chip that creates a crisp but not overtly crunch that would be a welcome addition to any guitarist's rig. I have played many styles of music with this pedal and cuts through on anything from soft pop to hard saturated rock. e.g. the saturation works well to expand the crunch coming from my Les Paul and the slapback echo gives my Telecaster a time machine feel right back to that 50s sound! It is a timely recreation of pedals and sounds gone by and works like it hasn't aged a day!
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